The feeling of having all his skills suddenly cease to work was akin to falling down to the ground from a high elevation. Because not only did Tom lose his access to activating any of his further skills, all of the abilities that he had active died down as well. 

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'Just what the heck is this?' he thought, looking down at his leg. Sadly, the blindness caused by the flash of light before still lingered. For now, he could barely distinguish major shapes in his surroundings. 

"Did you really think that you could come to this world and do as you please?" the guild master asked in a mocking manner. "Still, it's impressive of you to avoid three of the mylerit chains. I guess going for the extra effort was the right choice to make," she added before her voice was broken by the sudden clicking sound. 

'What just happened?' Tom thought, keeping his eyes closed to let them recover faster. On the off-hand, this only made it harder for him to figure out what the hell was going on. 

"You are courting death," Claudia said in a calm voice, more surprised by the sudden betrayal than shaken by the actual attack. "How long do you think it will take before we break free from those chains?" she asked before a metallic clacking sound announced how she had already started testing their strenght. 

"How long?" the guild master asked before laughing out loud. "Do you really think you will be able to do anything before we change them for the proper Kansanite chains?" the woman asked before a slapping sound could be heard. "Right, barbarians like you don't even know what either of those names means!" she added before letting out a hearty chuckle. "Out of the two of you, it's the guy that was stronger," she said before another clicking sound appeared, followed by a portion of Tom's strenght leaving his body. "And two of those chains are already binding him down," she added only for the third clicking sound to announce that the guild master wasn't going to stop whatever she was doing. 

"Why are you doing this?" Tom asked, forcing the last bits of his remaining strenght to hide how weakened he was. "How did we offend you? Why are you even attacking us?" he asked, throwing several questions in quick succession to appear as confused as it was possible. 

Those two elements, tough behavior, and confusion-indicating manner of speech wasn't just a simple combo. It was one of the few behavioral tactics that he was taught back at the family. 

Those tactics were one of the most guarded secrets of the military families of the last age. It was a set of tools used only by the absolute elites that worked behind the enemy lines, often with the intention of actually getting caught. 

In the post-war period, they were often disregarded as a failed project, a set of techniques that were a far cry from how they were expected to perform. Even in the peace treaty that limited what sort of weapons would be left and allowed in the post-war world, no one bothered to include them. 

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This result was also the greatest proof of just how efficient they could be if used properly. 

Sadly, Tom's family didn't get their hands on the entire set. Even with how high Tom's father and his brothers-in-arms were in the ranks, they had no direct access to the method. And out of the few techniques they managed to obtain, Tom only knew a few. 

"Do you really think I will just reveal all my plans to you now, sweetie?" the guild master asked in a gleeful tone. "Anyway, let's stop the chitchat," she added before the fourth clicking sound appeared. 

'Fuck,' Tom cursed in his thoughts when a sudden wave of weakness washed over his body. It was in no way comparable to how it felt when the previous chains locked on his limbs. Rather, it seemed as if combining all four of them changed their restraining strenght from the cumulation of the power of each chain into multiplication. 

Yet, he stood his ground, not buckling even for an inch. "This is way too little for y-you to break m-me," he said, intentionally making his voice shake a bit. 

"When attempting to soften up the guard of the target, act tough but let some clues to how weak you are slip," the voice of Tom's uncle rang through his ears. 

The young man wasn't conditioned. He didn't receive the injections, nor was his subconsciousness programmed. As such, without any of those crucial elements, his performance didn't even come close to how it should look. 

'But I'm not against professional with the equipment of the twenty-fourth age,' he thought, calmly analyzing the situation. 'Huh?' he thought a moment later when he noticed that there was something wrong with him. 

'The domain is still active?' Tom thought only to cast this realization away in fear that it would affect his performance. 

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"Is it done?" Suddenly, a new voice entered the room. "Good job," it said.

Tom opened his eyes. While his vision was still affected but no longer blanked out. 'I can see,' he thought, raising his head to assess the situation. 

The room was nowhere how it used to look like. In fact, if not for being certain that he was still in the same place, Tom couldn't really recognize it. 

All the furniture was broken down and in pieces. Some of his spears stuck out of the rubble that once used to be walls. Without moving his head around, he couldn't see what became of the entirety of the building, but what used to be the guild master's room was now nothing but a big hole filled with rubble all over the place. 

"I restrained them as ordered," the woman said, throwing a satisfied look at Tom's expression indicating how he struggled to keep his tough front. "And just as expected, they are not going to obediently follow the orders," she added as her lips twisted in an ugly grimace. 

"It doesn't matter," the other voice replied, forcing Tom to look over to its owner. 

The man oozed seriousness. His face was perfectly still, as if a single emotion never dirtied its surface. His eyes were cold and focused, not moving around at all but centered on whatever the man was currently looking at instead. 

'A man of focus,' Tom thought, recognizing the type of character that man possessed. 'This is bad,' he noticed, splitting his attention between observing the situation and analyzing his current standing. 

'I still have my spears. With just a single window, I can free myself,' he thought once catching a glimpse of his magic spears scattered all around. Then, as he looked towards his chains, he noticed a peculiarity that gave him quite a lot of hope. 

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All the chains on his limbs were actually connected to a dark-red slab of crystal embedded into the very floor of the building, which was the only part of it that remained relatively unscathed by the short fight!

'Is it pulsing?' Tom thought as his eyes drew to the crystal slab. With this observation, he suddenly realized that his strenght wasn't flowing out in a steady stream, but in the pulses corresponding to the vibrations of said slab instead!

'So that's how those chains work,' he thought, moving his eyes up. Up to this point, his act made both the guild master and the strange man disregard him. Even if they didn't completely lower their guard, it was clear that they considered themselves to be the lords of the situation. 

"Anyway," the man reached under his robe, moving his stare towards Tom's face, "let's not waste any time," he said, pulling out another crystal. It was a diamond-shaped object so dark that Tom couldn't even see through its darkness. 'It's like a complete void,' he thought when his eyes were drawn to the seemingly endless darkness of the crystal. 

All of Tom's senses cried out in alarm. Whatever this stone was, it was dangerous enough to touch the reverse scale of his instincts. 

"Yes, sir!" the guild master said, reaching forth for the stone. And as she grabbed it, she kneeled down, moving the stone towards the pulsing slab. 

'There is no time,' Tom thought as his entire self tensed up. 

He still didn't really know how to use his domain. It was one skill of his that he never got to master. But now, with all his abilities blocked, it was the one last thing he could use. 

'Swap!' Tom thought, wishing for the spell to work with his entire soul. Yet, nothing happened. The guild master's hand continued to move the void crystal closer to the slab. 

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'Fuck!' Tom thought. He didn't need to know what that stone was to understand it wasn't something he could ignore. 'Just go and fucking die!' he screamed out in his thoughts, unable to think of anything else anymore. 

"That's enough," Claudia suddenly said in a shaky voice. "Tom, how long are you going to let them do what they want?" she asked. 

Tom didn't even need to turn his head around to know that her lips formed a confident smile. 

'And just what am I supposed to do?' he thought, tightening his teeth. 

"Too late, girl," the guild master said, pushing the stone down on the slab. 

'Just go and stab her?' Tom thought, ridiculing the thought as the crystal reached the surface of the slab. But instead of touching it, the slab suddenly melted down, as if opening up to create a socket for the void-like crystal to fit. 

"Tom!" Claudia shouted, first signs of distress appearing in her voice. 

'Fuck,' the young man got desperate. The satisfied look on the man's face and the amused one on the guild master's lips didn't bode well for their future. In the last ditched attempt, he caught sight of the nearest spear of his. 

'It's so close,' he thought, feeling how the chains started to suck away his will to fight their influence. 'If only she could trip and stab herself...' he thought. 

And then, the spear jerked up, as if moved by an unseen hand.

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